Bhubaneswar: The state government has failed to reduce the rising fatalities in road mishaps in 2017 despite the Supreme Court (SC) direction to reduce it by 10 per cent every year.
A committee constituted by the apex court, under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court judge Radhakrishnan, had directed all states to take measures to reduce accident deaths by 10 per cent in 2017 as compared to 2016.
Though there has been a fall of 3.34 per cent in road accident fatalities in 2017 across the country, it has gone up by 7.33 per cent in Odisha.
In the current year, the highest number of fatalities has occurred between January and May 2018 in Ganjam (200), followed by Sundargarh (161), Keonjhar (157), Khurda (150) and Cuttack (119).
Ganjam, Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Khurda, Cuttack, Jajpur, Angul, Koraput, Sambalpur, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Dhenkanal, Bargarh, Puri and Jharsuguda contributed to 75 per cent of accidental deaths in the state.
Speaking at the road safety council meeting held here Friday, state Transport Minister Nrusingh Sahu said road safety in Odisha is in a bad shape compared to some other states.
The state failed to achieve the target set by the Supreme Court committee. The committee had resolved to achieve the target to reduce road accident fatalities by 50 per cent by 2015 as decided by UN General Assembly in March 2010.
He attributed the large number of casualties to drunken and rash driving, overweight and non use of helmets and seat belts during driving.